Growing up, one actress was the most spunky, the most scrappy, the most Shirley -- Anne Shirley, that is. Megan Follows was the perfect Anne of Green Gables. As a young girl, my love for L.M. Montgomery’s books was insatiable. I had the entire Anne (with an e) series, the entire Emily series, both Pat books, countless short stories and assorted random novels. In fact, I still have them all on my bookshelf. I even made my family vacation on Prince Edward Island one summer. So when the Canadian adaptation came out on PBS, I sat rapt as Anne, Marilla, Matthew and Gilbert Blythe (to this day, I have to say his first and last name together) came to rich, vibrant life. There was the red sand of P.E. Island. There was the charming, gabled farmhouse. There was the carpetbag-totting orphan with long, red braids.
As Anne matured in the series, Megan seemed to magically mature from girl to woman before our eyes. I’m pretty sure my affinity for red-heads can be traced back to her. Not to mention freckles. I always hoped Megan would find continued stardom after she was done being that Anne girl. And while she has kept busy acting, particularly in her native Canada, Megan hasn’t had the breakout success stateside that she so deserves. Ironically, part of the problem is probably people like me who have never let her leave Green Gables. But Megan should be heartened by the fact that she will forever be a kindred spirit, a bosom friend, to girls (and grown up girls like me) everywhere. Happy weekend, all.
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